Rapid Impact

Retail

By Leave a Comment

The pace of change in retail is unrelenting. New levels of consumer expectation and empowerment, enabled by social media and widely available comparative data, drive the pace of product development. More strategic participation in global supply chains is required to create faster, more adaptable delivery cycles as well as to manage risk and reputation for brand and corporate social responsibility.  Integrated, multi-channel capability is still on the agenda, made more complex by myriad new technology releases. E-tailers are moving to bricks and mortar, pop-up shops are no longer novel and on-demand delivery options drive long-term inventory and geography decisions into short-term planning horizons. Creating and maintaining customer service capabilities to keep pace with customer expectations, using fragmented pools of casual employees, continues to challenge even the most seasoned operators.

Examples of results

Children’s Publishing

Led by a strong entrepreneurial woman, this young business muscled its way into the market and many of its published series are now household names. We worked with the team to fully understand and document their points of difference and the uniqueness of their model.

Fashion house

This household name in the competitive women’s fashion sector wanted to improve its performance and better satisfy customers. Our work revealed opportunities to improve task boundaries, responsibilities and timelines and led to a complete re-design of the key business process. We engaged the whole team and used a forensic approach to question every activity in the process from the start of the season’s buying trip through to delivery of the range to stores and invoicing. In the CEOs own words “The process is now proudly displayed on the workroom wall, and is used as an example for the other companies in the Group. It means that we deliver ahead of time. It doesn’t mean we don’t make mistakes but it alerts us to where things might go ‘off the rails’ and allows us to take evasive or preventative action. There is no confusion, duplication of tasks, things falling through the cracks, or omission of responsibilities. And, more importantly, we no longer have any stress in our business associated with running behind time. Our day to day business process is smooth, calm and, above all, achievable.”

Peak Bodies and Associations

By Leave a Comment

Individually, organisations and practitioners in any field find it difficult, slow and often overwhelming to make sustained industry change. The problem is that there is either one lone voice for change or that individuals and organisations cannot find enough time and resources to coordinate action. Peak bodies are in a unique position to influence change in an industry, on behalf of their members.  Yet, peak bodies can be trapped by responding primarily to day-to-day issues, or, by dealing with reactive advocacy and lobbying, rather than delivering strategic change. The challenge is for them to identify a limited, focused agenda that delivers real change. By identifying and selecting the two or three change levers, then creating a tight agenda based on these levers, sustained change is possible.

The challenge is also to find the right timeframe and resource mix to be able to scan and interpret the environment for disruptive change from other industries. Traditionally, industry groups have shaped legislation by engaging with government at all levels. Now communities must also be engaged to build social licenses to operate, whether environmental, community or single issues of concern.

With the concept of membership in decline, whether union, peak body or sporting club, peak bodies and associations need to find new ways of generating value and revenue. These positive operational levers are essential for relevance and longevity.

Examples of Results

Peak Body – Mining

We worked with the executive team to identify the game changing issues for the industry and to better structure themselves for delivery of value to members.  As well as maintaining a comprehensive service offer, the organisation continues to work with its members to influence favourable investment conditions in Australia, including identifying and driving initiatives to create a competitive labour supply pool. These two key success factors are inextricably tied to volatile commodity prices and a strategic balance needs to be sustained for the overall industry to be viable and competitive.

Peak Bodies – Medical

We have worked at both the state and federal level with some of Australias’ brightest minds to balance organisation passion and strong commitment to public health issues with the internal needs and continuing development of the profession.  Like many industries, the next generation of health professionals has very different expectations of how they train and what they expect in terms of culture and working conditions and the peak body needs a robust plan to remain relevant and attractive.

Industry body – Transport

With this executive team, we worked to identify strategies for overcoming critical skills shortages and embracing new commercial models for training, development and industry growth.  These strategies will form the basis of campaigns that highlight the technical sophistication and professionalism of the industry, and reasons for people to consider it as an exciting career choice.  This highly price-competitive industry has seen many small, family owned businesses disappear or morph into high tech, competitive international firms with complex systems and new capability sets.

Industry Body – Dairy

This agriculture-based industry continues to support its farmers to deal with highly competitive markets as many make the huge step from manual, family business to consolidated, high-tech, agricultural enterprises. We worked with a cross section of industry representatives to identify the critical data, information and support required to make robust decisions around feed and nutrition modeling, DNA and breeding technologies, animal and natural resource management, carbon footprint management, welfare issues for international export and balancing farm and animal lifecycle productivity.

Aboriginal Organisations and Issues

By Leave a Comment

Aboriginal organisations want to make their own decisions about their destiny but at the same time, they want to be respectfully challenged, and are very keen to explore how to do things differently.  They have endless experience of poor consultation processes that deliver no outcomes, tokenistic interactions, and being consulted only at the end of someone else’s strategic or resource allocation process.  In most situations we’ve worked in, Aboriginal leaders want to be the ones to set the agenda, drive that agenda forward, and have others sign on to their approach.

The strategic challenges for Aboriginal organisations are great but not defeating. There is a long history of persistence and resilience in the face of overwhelming complexity and resistance to change. The constantly shifting scenarios of government policy mean change is a given. We have worked with Aboriginal controlled organisations to understand the changing world around them and to identify where there are opportunities for them in that change. Once the strategic direction is clear, the additional challenge is how to bring along culture and community and make the most of the abundant “natural assets” in each community.

Because most Aboriginal organisations are community-controlled, creating alignment is a key task of an executive team. They need to find the best set of outcomes to satisfy community needs and aspirations, Board expectations, managers understanding of what can be achieved with available resources, and the demands of diverse stakeholders. Community is a powerful force and there are always complexities in navigating the diverse aspirations within. Helping family and community move forward while acknowledging and dealing with past trauma means that there always needs to be a balance between healing the past and creating the future.  Leaders of Aboriginal organisations work to acknowledge and allow for a strategic agenda and a pace of change that is manageable for their organisation and their community.

One of the most positive tasks for leaders in these organisations is tapping into the strong pool of talent that exists within the community to make plans happen.  We feel privileged to help the many strong formal and informal leaders to sharpen their thinking and ideas, make sure they have a strong evidence base and then produce actions that are realistic given that every issue being addressed has a level of complexity that demands extraordinary levels of insight, analysis and compassion.

Examples of Results

Regional-based Aboriginal Organisation

We have walked beside this organisation over three years to support its transformation to one of the strongest Aboriginal Controlled organisations in the sector.  Over this time, the new CEO has built a strong executive team, and together they have been prepared to challenge, create or change every system, process and approach to ensure the community is engaged and receives the services they deserve and need.  In the first year we worked on a complete organisation refresh, ensuring basic systems were in place and new ways of thinking and working were introduced.  Three years later, we continue to support their growth through strategic and operational planning, conducting reviews, providing advice and support on a range of key business decisions.  The results speak for themselves.  More community members use the services, government confidence has returned (as measured by increased funding), and successful programs are being showcased on the international stage.  While these results are impressive, there is so much more the organisation aspires to achieve, including creating sustainable Aboriginal business enterprises.

City-based Aboriginal Organisation

This large, Melbourne-based Aboriginal organisation provides diverse services to 50% of Victoria’s Aboriginal population.  We started work with the Board and leadership team by analysing the changing location and demographics of their community as well as myriad other changes in the service sector.  Of major concern is the number of non-Aboriginal organisations vying for Aboriginal program funding, creating pressure to review and rethink existing programs and ensure consistent delivery of outcomes.  Strategically, the challenge continues to be how to create a manageable agenda when the number of clients continues to grow. We worked to support staff who are committed to ensuring the most vulnerable client and their families have access to the diversity of service they require, to find a way that also strengthens culture and self determination.

Koolin Balit

This significant, 10 year Victorian Government initiative is designed to close the gap in life expectancy for Aboriginal people living in Victoria. The goals are to reduce the differences in infant mortality, morbidity and low birth weights between the general population and Aboriginal people, and improve access to services and outcomes for Aboriginal people.  In the Loddon Mallee Region, we supported the senior team at the Department of Health to enact a decision that five Aboriginal Controlled Organisations (LMARG) would determine where funds should be allocated for greatest affect.  The process was an innovation for the State.  Multiple workshops were facilitated to gain agreement on the five priority areas and the proportion of resources that should be allocated to each.  Different Aboriginal organisations are taking the regional lead on priorities to ensure accountability and ownership is spread.

State-Wide Aboriginal Forum

We assisted in the design of, and led the facilitation team for, the 2008 State-wide Indigenous Forum. The event created a shared vision of success and strengthened partnerships between the Victorian Government and the Aboriginal community.  Over 200 community and agency people attended the Forum to reflect on the progress made towards improving the lives of Indigenous Victorians and to refine the future work ahead. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people publically acknowledged the Forum as a landmark event for addressing Indigenous issues in Victoria.

Aboriginal Prisoner Health

Aboriginal health is particularly vulnerable during trial and incarceration, while serving community based orders, and on release.  We supported an urgent need to create more responsive and supportive health services to meet the offenders’ needs as they move through the criminal justice system.  Robust discussion was facilitated to identify priority action areas with the goal of ensuring that Aboriginal people leave the system stronger and more culturally resilient than when they arrive.

Indigenous Private Rental Project

Sustained access to private housing is key to addressing many of the systemic issues that underlie disadvantage. This project worked to inform tenants, agents, property owners and Aboriginal housing providers about their rights and responsibilities to Aboriginal people. The work included addressing prejudice, stereotypes, insufficient housing stock as well as agencies not accommodating Aboriginal people and their culture. We identified the guiding principle that people should be able to choose a place that supports their lifestyle based on merit, track record and ability to pay, just as others do in the community. We then developed strategies to educate stakeholders and create resources to help Aboriginal people to become better tenants, particularly when they have had limited role models and experience in the private rental market.

Out of Home Care

Growth in the number of children in out of home care is increasing rapidly, particularly in Aboriginal communities.  Organised by the Commission for Children and Young People, we worked with Aboriginal organisations from around the State to address the needs of finding and reconnecting children with family and culture, building life skills, dealing with trauma and developing cultural identity to create resilience in multi-home families.

Alcohol and Other Drugs (Aboriginal Regional Services)

In response to a new pool of infrastructure funding, we worked with this group of service providers to find a collective approach to implementing change that was sympathetic to the different ownership and governance models of each regional and local provider. Real challenges had to be overcome with the data systems and their availability to support timely decision making.

Transport, Freight & Logistics

By Leave a Comment

Large transport organisations are experts in building and leveraging long term, large-scale infrastructure, whether road, rail, shipping or ports.  The strategic task is to create organisational capability to manage both daily efficiency in operations and high consequence, “bet the business” decisions about markets, technology and environment.

Investment decisions for capital intensive, long lead-time infrastructure components require effective collaboration between geographical business executives and their operations, finance and technology specialist colleagues. These strategic, collaborative decisions are even more challenging if set in new markets or new political, environmental or legislative environments. Private and public transport executives face increasing demands to also navigate and integrate new requirements for transparency, accountability, environmental and social impact into their strategic and operational planning.

Examples of Results

International Shipping Company

We worked with this organization annually for 5 years as an integral member of the executive planning team. The outcomes that resulted included entry into two new markets; barging and offshore wind farms. We assisted the multi-national business to create a strategy that understood, respected and nurtured the rich experience and success of the acquired South American business, and at the same time, blended the best practices and expertise of the global organisation.   The post-merger integration strategy addressed engagement and inclusion, crucial in developing the new vision and culture for the merged entity.

Freight, Logistics & Marine

This multi-year planning engagement addressed a common challenge faced by public authorities: changes in government bring changes to policy and delivery of the ‘freight task’. Executives need to rapidly refocus the organisation to reflect new policy changes. Transport projects span many years, so the leadership team has to select specific, strategic pieces of work to do in the current year, which respond to the subtleties of the new political regime and deliver tangible progress to the long-term book of work that spans decades.  Greater emphasis on intermodal industry approaches demand new ways of thinking to deliver relative efficiency improvements, especially as solutions are often limited by existing infrastructure and geography as well as the capability and commitment of stakeholders and key players in the supply chains.

Marine Safety Victoria

This multi-year engagement provided support to three different CEOs across six years of planning and strategy work. The organisation’s mandate is to make waterways safe for boating. Depending on who is at the helm and who is in government changes the strategic balance between focusing on policy creation and education or on regulation and compliance. During this engagement, initiatives covering both these areas of focus were created and implemented, from establishment of a self-generating safety culture to legislation that mandated the compulsory wearing of personal floatation devices (life jackets) on Victoria’s marine waterways.

Port Terminal Owners and Operators

This global organization owns and operates a significant market share with 65 marine terminals on 6 continents. The challenges addressed in this engagement included intensified competition from rival local firms as well as the arrival of a new international competitor. We helped the executive team consider attack strategies from the perspective of the new entrant to address threats in the areas of operations, infrastructure, technology and key relationships. This perspective was integrated and considered with the daily operational and profitability concerns of faster and cheaper throughput – the key competitive lever.

Justice and Legal

By Leave a Comment

The justice and legal system is presented with ever more complex victim and offender scenarios. It struggles to keep up with known challenges such as the need for cross-cultural approaches for Aboriginal offenders, let alone new challenges such as the wave of violent crimes arising from the “ice” epidemic.

More proactive, preventative service delivery models are being sought to reduce the number of people ending up in the criminal justice system as well as to decrease recidivism.  Solutions are rarely clear and high levels of consultation and good will are required to get them implemented.

Examples of Results

Australian Consumer Law

In 2011, the new Australian Consumer Law was implemented enabling a more integrated, harmonized approach to consumer protection.  These reforms have significantly changed the legislative framework for consumers and traders, including the way consumer policy is developed and implemented, and how consumer law is communicated and enforced in Australia. As an independent collaborator, we successfully facilitated a session with consumer protection jurisdictions and the ACCC to make final decisions in areas where agreement was yet to be reached. We have subsequently assisted jurisdictions to develop new priorities that reflect the changed legislative environment. This cohesive group of Commonwealth and State regulators has achieved extraordinarily high levels of trust, collaboration and collective action.

Victims Assistance And Counseling Program

There is a growing waiting list of victims needing support and insufficient numbers of staff on the ground.  As well as dealing with the burden of overwhelming caseloads, staff wellbeing is also negatively impacted given the inherent stress of working with victim’s experiences of trauma.  We supported staff to understand how they can take action to change the current situation, including the creation of a business case to secure more investment in the sector.

Koorie Courts

Over 200 people came together to strengthen and adapt the existing relationships, protocols and approaches of the Koorie Courts. The participants included magistrates and senior staff from the formal judicial system, Aboriginal Elders and Respected Persons and Koori Court Officers from Aboriginal communities around Victoria.  In collaboration with the Koori Court Office and the Children’s Court, we created a framework and the environment for discussions around what is considered culturally appropriate and inappropriate behaviour for magistrates, an understanding of areas where Elders and Respected Persons might step over judicial boundaries, and potential areas of confusion between the role of the Magistrate and the Aboriginal Elders and Respected Persons with regard to decision-making and conflicts of interest.  A most entertaining and provocative role-play was scripted and performed by some of Melbourne’s most senior magistrates to stimulate and engage robust discussion around sensitive issues.

Community Organisations and Issues

By Leave a Comment

Rapid Impact is privileged to work with community organisations that support the most vulnerable people in our community. The challenges are many and complex, from community awareness and acknowledgement to politically-charged funding and investment decisions. Even now, where it is more acceptable to talk about issues such as child abuse and family violence in the wider community, the amount of funding available to deal with the extraordinary number and rise of abuse victims falls well short of basic needs.

In a bid to support the complexity and diversity of their clients, these organisations have many programs and are pulled in many directions.  On a daily basis they deal with higher levels of risk where a breach of policy or an error in service delivery can have severe consequences. Not surprisingly, the compliance burdens are great yet the level and capability of resources is rarely sufficient.

Breaking the cycle requires cross-community initiatives and early intervention and so often, one service, no matter how diverse, is unable to bridge the gap. Leaders focused on progress towards sustainable change need to have heroic levels of determination and stamina as well as insight and intuition to find a strategic pathway through these issues.

Examples of Results

Vulnerable children

Every year this organisation assists over 27,000 of the most disadvantaged children, young people and families across our community.  They are ambitious, tenacious and relentless in their pursuit of improving the lives of the most vulnerable. There are ideas and plans a plenty for new and expanding services.  The challenge was to work with this inspiring team to capture the diversity of ideas, initiatives and plans, set priorities and integrate all into a single point of reference. We helped to create an implementation sequence that was logical, and most importantly, manageable.

Unlocking Sunraysia’s Potential

In this regional city, the whole community was deeply concerned about the future of its youth.  Strong community leaders assembled school principals, business owners, government departments, community and youth services to create a plan of action.  We worked with over a hundred people to create a shared plan identifying ways of keeping youth involved in the community, recognising early warning signs of at risk youth, as well as re-engaging those who have slipped under the radar. The community came together and made a commitment to act because it was clear no one group could solve the problem; housing, education, health, justice and employment all needed to be able to play their part in broader community-driven initiatives.

Regional amalgamation

A State Government restructure triggered the amalgamation of two service delivery regions. The Department chose to fund a series of half-day workshops, optimistic that the 13 existing providers across the two regions could negotiate and agree a new, integrated service delivery model. In conjunction with a subject matter expert, we created and supported a robust negotiation process that resulted in the organisations agreeing a new governance structure and operating principles.  Difficult decisions were made to shift resources within the partnership to better reflect demand, client vulnerability and system improvements. The success of this challenging negotiation within the agreed timeframe averted the need for the Department to engage in a time-consuming and costly tender process.

Royal Commission into Family Violence (Vic)

Many organisations and peak bodies are creating submissions to the Royal Commission in a bid to leverage opportunities for significant change to this high profile and highly disturbing community issue.  With little time available, we assisted Melbourne’s six largest service providers reach agreement on the common message and focused call to action to present to the Commission.

Health Services and Public Health Issues

By Leave a Comment

Public and private health providers are dealing with the relentless challenge of delivering services to an escalating number of patients, each with more complex requirements. There is a significant strategic and operational challenge because difficult choices need to be made on a daily basis about which services will be funded.

In addition to cost pressures, health services are grappling with new models of care that involve more complex arrangements such as wrap around services, coordinated care and integrated service delivery. While many of these concepts are not new, ramping up service volumes and changing models at the same time is difficult.  The introduction of competitive, specialist private providers, such as day surgery services, is successfully drawing away profitable tiers of clients from traditional providers.

Delivering services in new and different ways is challenging enough but there are also many whose organisation culture is trapped by the increasing burden and complexity of compliance. Finding ways to release and encourage people to think differently whether you are the funder or the service provider is a critical strategic capability.

Examples of Results

Private Hospital

We assisted this regional health service (part of a large national health provider) to produce a robust, evidenced-based strategy to effectively compete with other services within the group for infrastructure and service delivery investment.  While they were unable to prevent entry into the market of a new specialist provider, they introduced strategies early to mitigate their business risk.

Workforce Planning

Solving the critical shortage of health professionals to address known capacity gaps is complex.  Not only do tertiary funded places need to increase but new capacity also needs to be created within health services for student placements so practical knowledge and skills can be developed.  We supported robust debate amongst Government, health services and tertiary institutions to create new and alternative models to grow the capability of the system.  Included in the solution set was a shift in thinking for when and how simulated facilities could be better used to increase the quality of training delivered in a low risk environment.

Mental Health Pilot Initiative

The Victorian Government introduced legislative changes to the Mental Health Act, and to support these, funded a pilot program in seven health services (18 psychiatric units) to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint of patients. We partnered with a local forensic health expert to customise and translate the UK Safewards program into a format and approach suitable for the Victorian psychiatric setting.  This involved understanding the theory and practice of SafeWards, creating innovative delivery methods and establishing a learning network of professionals who had the confidence to embed and institutionalise the initiatives at each of their respective workplaces.

Government and University Collaboration

In collaboration with its fellowship partner, VicSport and Sport and Recreation Victoria, we reviewed the scope of one of the key research programs.  Avoiding scope creep is challenging when each of the parties has diverse and competing agendas in their respective organisations.  At the conclusion, all players agreed the ultimate deliverables and project milestones, outlined key elements of a detailed action plan and clarified items that were non-negotiable, discretionary and out of scope.  This challenging conversation reinforced the common ground amongst the players and positively changed their working relationship.

Medical Local

At the end of 2011, the Commonwealth abolished the Divisions of General Practice and created Medicare Locals. The interpretation and focus of the role of Medical Locals across Australia has been diverse. This Medical Local quickly established strong operational and governance arrangements. Their challenge was to focus on how to best add value to other local health services without adding another layer of bureaucracy or duplicating existing services.   We assisted to focus action plans and agree on five priorities.

Professional and Business Services

By Leave a Comment

Balancing demands in a competitive professional and business environment is a common theme for our clients. To build, or in some cases, hold market position, is increasingly tough as local markets are tight, online businesses offer exciting alternatives and competition from non-traditional providers is increasing.

Our clients already have very full and challenging workdays, because they are highly skilled functional specialists at the top of their profession. They are also responsible for managing their businesses, there are logistical and focus challenges for them as individuals as well as for the leadership team. Businesses that have grown rapidly, often through the personal efforts of the founders, can be hampered by legacy business and computer systems.  Knowing which business opportunities and customers to chase and what not to pursue, and investing in the right systems and people to support competitiveness and growth, requires a new kind of focus and management approach from leaders.

Examples of Results

Real Estate

After a demerger, this commercial real estate organisation was early in its journey of preserving its market position and developing a distinctive value proposition.  Addressing limitations in market and operational data, we supported and encouraged the team to produce a “fact pack” to ensure and inform strategic decision-making.  They are now a data hungry organisation and use this information to read the marketplace, set the organisation’s agenda and evaluate their market performance.

Architects

This firm wanted to grow from an over reliance on a sole practitioner to a sustainable business in a highly competitive market. As a small practice they were only too aware of the need to build an approach and capacity to ride the highs and lows of economic prosperity. To support this growth and sustainability objective, we identified strategies (including market diversification and increased specialization) to create a point of difference and to drive sustained revenue growth.  They are now actively participating in the international professional community as well as building on their local success and influence.

Kids Fitness and Entertainment

We assisted this young, intuitive entrepreneur explore growth opportunities within a framework that reflected her personal and business aspirations and suited her appetite for risk. This kids fitness concept has boldly muscled its way into a crowded sport and recreational landscape.  As a thought partner, Rapid Impact worked through the various growth options, as well as mentoring the owner and building the confidence required to work through some of the difficult business decisions along the way.

Legal

This firm has enjoyed organic growth year on year, however profitability has become concerning.  In addition to clarifying the firm’s distinctive value proposition and preferred market position, we provided a new structure to manage the business, improved clarity about roles and responsibilities, and a new remuneration and incentive approach for individuals and teams.

Marketing

This firm operates in a highly creative and fast-moving sector.  Their goal was to continue to invigorate their already vibrant culture. We worked with staff to identify the levers that would have the greatest impact and created a simple, compelling action plan for change.  Capturing and investing in these ideas has seen the client continue to refresh its culture and refurbish its office space in a way that has to be experienced to be believed.

Sport and Recreation

By Leave a Comment

Achieving world-class medal performance has become harder as international competition standards rise, training systems and intellectual property are quickly replicated, and investment strongly correlates with results.  In Australia, future government funds will be more closely tied to results, a clear factor in influencing the viability and sustainability of a number of sports.

The majority of Australian sports are structured around a federated model and an army of volunteers.  Some sports have stalled and experienced years of frustration as a result of the inability to get all stakeholders on board (clubs, states and national bodies).  Engaging and exciting the broader sports system is crucial to success.

For Australia’s sports franchises, whether one of the football code or netball franchises, the race is on.  The strategic challenge is for clubs to build the biggest and most engaged fan base, grow TV and new media share of market and wallet, and connect most effectively with local communities.

Examples of results

Sport Franchise

We identified how to best leverage the momentum and success of the clubs final’s performance, including how to extend the reach, presence and impact of social change within the local community.  We supported their adoption of a rigorous reporting culture so strategy is an active part of daily business activity and performance management.

Recently Merged Sport Franchise

We assisted the refreshed board and management team to create a bold strategy that honoured the past, yet marked a new era, where a single brand, collective identify and new strategy would be championed.

Australian National Sports Organisation

Rapid Impact has created consecutive strategies for Australia’s largest female sport since 2008.  Over this time, the sport has delivered aggressive growth on every indicator of success. The leadership team has demonstrated a willingness to be challenged, a commitment to new ways of thinking, and a consistent drive to deliver each successive strategy. Key achievements include over 100,000 kids involved in its nationally-driven participation program (from a zero base), a 300% increase in the number of coaches, a 35% increase in officials, the launch of the Trans-Tasman competition, and with this, a single nation-wide participation festival.

UK Sport’s Organisation

This UK Olympic sport was determined to capitalise on the London 2012 Olympic Games, especially while government investment was strong and the nation’s expectations and interest high.  We worked to create a proactive strategy that has delivered a measurable Olympic legacy.  Since then, results achieved include continuing high performance outcomes at benchmark events and thriving local community clubs.

Olympic performance

We assisted this high performance program achieve consensus amongst competing programs as to where effort should be directed to maximise results at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and preceding benchmark events.  We supported coaches and high performance staff to articulate the performance characteristics and behaviours of successful Olympic teams, irrespective of ethnicity and culture.

Institute of Sport

We assisted the board and leadership team to refocus the Institute and explore commercial opportunities to best use existing specialist knowledge and expertise.  A robust discussion was led around the delicate balance between focusing on producing high performing athletes and other strategies that increased profile, and focused on greater investment from current and non-traditional sources.

Sporting Injury Prevention Taskforce

In 2011, the Victorian Government established the Sports Injury Prevention Taskforce to identify and address the injury and safety related barriers that prevent people from leading a more active lifestyle.  The governing principle was “to have more Victorians active more often”. This major collaboration involved multiple government departments, local government authorities, universities, sports medicine groups, and sports.  Rapid Impact worked with the Taskforce to shape the 12-month project and ensure precise measurable outcomes were delivered at each stage. It was agreed, the only recommendations that would be accepted were those that could demonstrate clear public benefit, deliver improvements in both performance and participation, and were seen as systemic, socially inclusive and measurable. Within 12 months, Victoria’s five biggest sports embraced the outcomes and change is already visible.

Barriers to Welcome and Inclusive Sport

The Minister for Sport created a forum involving sports from across Victoria to jointly understand the barriers and solutions required to make sport welcoming and inclusive for all Victorians.  Rapid Impact facilitated this large forum, creating an environment that enabled the existing success stories to be shared, and a robust discussion to take place around where sport could show strong leadership and extend the range of people participating, particularly those in under represented sub-groups. System-wide opportunities for collaboration around non-competitive areas such as research, data collection and back of house systems were identified.